de Vaucouleurs, Gérard Henri

Alternate Name

Vaucouleurs, Gérard Henri de

Born Paris, France, 25 April 1918

Died Austin, Texas, USA, 7 October 1995

Gérard de Vaucouleurs surveyed, classified, and cataloged galaxies in the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, and created a complex Galaxy classification system that differed from Edwin Hubble ’s system and was more useful scientifically.

Vaucouleurs grew up in Paris. Nothing is known of his father; he adopted his mother’s maiden name. Vaucouleurs showed a boyhood interest in astronomy, observing the Moon with a borrowed nautical telescope from the balcony of his family’s apartment. With a telescope later given to him by his mother, he became an expert visual observer, timing lunar occultations and mapping the visible appearances of the planets. With his home-made map of Martian surface features, the young amateur astronomer measured the rotation rate of Mars with an accuracy unsurpassed until the 1960s Mariner spacecraft missions to the planet made further...